I’m looking for your beliefs and/or opinions only… not a debate! Me? I’m not sure anymore.
I have no idea, but I hope I walk the Earth as a ghost for a while so I can fuck with the people who pissed me off when I was alive.
So, what, this is a poll?
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OK, Since this is IMHO, not GD, let’s see:
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One of my favorite descriptions of the experience after death, for sheer oddity (as in, I’ve only heard it once):
You find yourself standing before a path made up of everyone who has lived before you–all lying in a sort of of line (side by side, maybe). You walk along this path, stepping over their still bodies, and when you get to the end, you lie down. -
Alternatively, perhaps it’s just:
My body and mind both will disintegrate, dissolving into their component materials, which will become other living things–this is the true reincarnation. “I” am merely a temporary shape of part of the true “whole” which is the world.
Consciously, things get similar to how you knew them to be before you were alive. Not much mystery there.
Legally, though, it gets interesting: as a dead person, you can no longer own property. Conversely, your corpse itself can not be owned as property - an unusual situation, unless you either decay or are destroyed to an extent that you are considered part of the local real estate, or if you have expressly willed your remains to an organization like a medical school.
Maybe you legal eagles will disprove this, but the state has no right to dispose of the bodies of derelicts for medical education. I believe that your dying destitute and intestate with no next of kin does not give the state first dibs on you. It’s just that who would to sue on behalf of a bunch of dead winos against the people who train our doctors?
That’s what happens when you die. Oh, and your fingernails keep growing, and since you’ve stopped swallowing that unending column of mucus your stomach juices will start to digest you.
This is a toughie. Firstly, I do believe in a “divine” creator, so it follows that their must be some sort of afterlife. Anyone remember the short-lived series “God, The Devil and Bob”? I kind of picture God (or whatever He or She calls themself) in that light. It then follows that the afterlife must be a pretty laid-back, casual place. I envision it as a sort of “sanitized” version of California; warm weather, sun and a soundtrack of the Beach Boys. Not real original, but comforting to me nonetheless.
You mean as I die? Or after I’m dead? Or just before I die?
You mean to my body? Or to my consciousness? Or to my so-called soul?
You mean legally? Or physically? Or metaphysically?
You mean what do I know? Or believe? Or expect? Or hope for?
I think my point here is… I don’t know what you mean.
I finally get enough sleep.
Yeah, something like that… alternatively, like Fear Itself, maybe I will finally catch up on my sleep.
~¿~ ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
My belief (obviously impossible to prove) is that what happens to you when you die is the same thing that happens to any creature when it dies - you cease to exist. What happens to a gnat when it hits your windshield? The same thing happens to us. Now I’m not by any means comparing humans as a whole to gnats, so don’t get offended…
Well I’m not exactly sure whether you travel to a devine place or not, I believe heaven is on earth but thats a totally different topic. I believe after you die you continue to exist, only in a different state. I’m not sure whether you have conciousness or not, I guess I’ll find out eventually. The state I believe you go into is possibly similar to energy. As you know energy never dies, it just changes form. The human mind and body is full of energy. Every thought you have is in its own way energy. So what happens to this energy when you die? It goes somewhere else, and whether your conciouness travels with it; I havn’t decided yet. This is just a thought, so please don’t reply contradicting. Like the OP says this is not a debate. If you have somehting to add, then please do so.
To tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea.
I slowly decompose.
I originally read that as “goat”, not gnat! Made me wonder about your driving habits!!
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinochle on your snout…
And now, for an appropriate quote…
For three days after death, hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off. – Johnny Carson
I am God and I put the AHunter3 book I just finished reading back on the shelf and pick another and start to read and soon I am once again engrossed in the book and forget that I am God.
To quote the great Ethel Barrymore: “That’s all there is, there isn’t any more.”
I believe that whatever you have envisioned as happening is what will happen. The afterlife is different for all of us, just as this life is experienced differently by each of us. If, for instance, you believe that the afterlife will consist of a warm, California-like climate, with plenty of sunshine, green grass, and a never-ending Beach Boys soundtrack, that’s what you’ll experience. If, on the other hand, you believe that the afterlife consists of standing before the pearly gates and being judged by a supreme force, then that’s what you’ll experience.
I happen to believe that the part of each of us that makes us human (call it whatever you want) will continue to exist. My “humaness” will get to meet all the other “humanesses” that have come before - I’ll be able to sit down with Abraham Lincoln and swap tall tales, I’ll be able to meet my grandfather who I never knew, I’ll be able to travel throughout time and visit all of the episodes of history that are of interest to me. I’ll be able to know the answer to all of life’s great mysteries. That’s my idea of “heaven.”
If I’m wrong on this and, as Eve said, “that’s all there is, there isn’t anymore,” then that’s OK, too. It won’t make any difference to me. Afraid of dying? Nope. Afraid of dying in pain or in some long, protracted way that causes the people I love to suffer along with me - you bet.
BTW, has anyone seen Diane Keaton’s movie called “Heaven?” It is a documentary sort of piece that asks people this very same question.
I agree w/ Spritle: worm food. And so it goes.
I was looking for your beliefs on what happens to your consciousness or “soul” after you die. What do you believe, expect or hope for?
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For eternity??!! Maybe the first couple of hundred years it’d be interesting, but IMHO “heaven” would get pretty boring after your grandfather recounts his best anecdotes for the trillionth time, wouldn’t it?